One of Colorado’s youngest players showed his upside
You’re reading the 2024 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back at the season had by every player to play for the Rockies in 2024. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the least amount of rWAR and end up with the player with the most.
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No. 19, Angel Chivilli (0.2 rWAR)
For so long — so long — the Colorado Rockies have tried to draft and develop a plus arm to be utilized out of their bullpen. There have been some flashes of success in this regard, such as Justin Lawrence’s solid 2023 campaign and Rex Brothers’ amazing 2013 season. These instances have been fun to watch, but they haven’t led to consistent results, and Colorado still seeks its true shutdown reliever.
While it’s still very early, Angel Chivilli is off to a fine start.
The 22-year-old Dominican right-hander was signed in 2018 and rose up through the minor leagues quickly, with his classic sinker-slider-changeup combination serving him well. The former PuRP was somewhat surprisingly called up to the major leagues in early May before making his in-game debut in June.
While his first month in the bigs was an up-and-down affair, August and September showed just how capable Chivilli is. The youngster appeared in 30 games in total last season, amassing a 4.55 ERA.
That’s not exactly mind-blowingly good, but it’s a solid jumping off point for a pitcher that has been described as a future candidate for a late-inning reliever role. His changeup is enticing, as it’s easily his best pitch and one that seemed to be the recipient of some bad luck last season. (The pitch was hit for a .259 opposing batting average, but Savant has it as an expected batting average of just .208.)
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Colorado’s bullpen isn’t very good. They’ve often attempted to sway free agent relievers to pitch at altitude, and it largely hasn’t gone well. If Chivilli can continue to develop his changeup, it could turn into a genuinely valuable asset, especially because changeups can and should be utilized to great effectiveness above sea level.
Chivilli will likely begin 2025 as a locked-in member of the Rockies relief corps, slotting in alongside fellow newcomers such as Seth Halvorsen and Victor Vodnik. The specific roles of the bullpen seem wide open aside from Tyler Kinley’s assumed closer spot, so it’s possible — if not likely — that Chivilli could be counted on as a setup man in close games. He’ll have to do some maturing, and quickly, if he is to be productive in that capacity.
There have been murmurs of a potential move to the rotation down the line for the righty, but that seems a bit too tinker-y for my liking. For now, developing him as an effectual bullpen arm would be the best use of his time, both in his growth as a major league pitcher and as an asset to the Rockies. They have plenty of starters learning the ropes down in the minors, less so a cache of talented relievers. Chivilli could be leading the charge in that category.
One pretty good year, your first in MLB no less, far from guarantees a career of prosperity and pedigree. With that said, Chivilli’s makeup is enticing and could make for an interesting addition to Colorado’s long-term plans. For now, it’s enough to write his name onto the roster sheet and see how he uses his sophomore season to build on the success of his debut campaign.
Who knows? If he keeps improving, we may be looking at Angel Chivili less like another failed pitching experiment, and more like a heaven-sent gift from the baseball gods themselves.
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